Month: July 2017

The quality is poor in this picture on the left, but then again so was the quality of my life back then. For YEARS I lived a life where the most common question among my friends wasn’t “are we going out tonight” and instead was “where are we going out to drink tonight.” It was an every day thing. Getting drunk wasn’t ever the goal. We just wanted to get drinks after work. It was just a social thing – what everyone did. It was a formed habit. The topic of conversation each night… gossip, gossip, and more gossip. Until 2013 that’s just what I did and then I had a sort of awakening one day.

I don’t even know how to explain it. I just remember meeting everyone out one night after work and after the gym and when I got to the bar I had a moment where time nearly stood still. I saw people whose marriages were falling apart from constant drinking, I saw people cheating on their significant others, I saw people getting in fights in one corner of the bar, I saw people stumbling around slurring their speech and embarrassing themselves, among many other things. None of these things were commonplace by any means, but I think all of it was happening at once so God could show me that there was no bright future going down the track I was headed down. At that moment I walked out of the bar having not even had time to open up a tab and never turned back.

So much time was wasted every day after work for years when I could’ve been spending time becoming a greater version of myself. I’ll never get that time back and I really don’t spend time concerned about that time lost. All I can control is the controllables and one controllable in my life is how I spend my time now. If I have spare time now I listen to personal growth and development podcasts. I listen to talks and watch YouTube videos on business. Mariah and I watch videos and read books to grow deeper in our faith. We are committed to growth in all meaningful areas of our lives. It is a simple exchange we chose to make. We have chosen to exchange pouring alcohol into ourselves for the pouring of leadership and personal development into ourselves.

This is not a condemnation on drinking or a judgment on anyone who does. I don’t think it’s wrong or bad to have a glass of wine or a beer, but that’s not where I was at back then and the frequency of the social drinking was terrible. I just simply realized that I didn’t know anyone’s life that was improved from it and knew that nothing in my life was going to get better from continuing that social habit. I was right. When I broke that habit and began spending that wasted time on something meaningful my whole life changed.

Look at what has happened since I made those positive changes! I’m married to an AMAZING woman and mother, I now have two BEAUTIFUL children, I have hung out with my man-crush Drew Brees TWICE, I built an incredible business with my wife which provides an awesome residual income stream for our family, and I had the honor of speaking on stage in Dallas Cowboy Stadium at a leadership event in front of 20,000 people!

Time is important and is our most valuable resource. Once it’s gone it’s gone and you’ll never get it back. Spend the time you have on this side of the grass wisely. Create meaningful relationships and know that your friends and associations are either stretching you or choking you. Cut bad habits, cut the cable, quit reading and watching the news, and instead spend time doing things that matter.

“Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.” – Roger Babson